But a Tucson architecture group is trying to persuade Pima
County to drop its plans to demolish part of a building it
considers a prime example of the Modern architectural style known
as Brutalism.

The demolition is planned as the county transforms the former
Valley National Bank data center at 3434 E. 22nd St. into a secure
compound to house an emergency communications hub called the Pima
County Wireless Integration Network.

County voters approved $92 million for the project in 2004. It
was designed in the wake of communications problems during the
terrorist attack in New York City on Sept. 11, 2001, to ensure that
Pima County emergency responders can communicate with each other in
the event of catastrophe.

The Modern Architecture Preservation Project considers the
building one of the 50 most significant examples of Modern
architecture in Tucson and is asking the Board of Supervisors to
change the county's plans.

The Tucson Operations Center of the former Valley National Bank
was built in 1972.

Under its president, Walter Bimson, Valley National Bank pursued
a building program that focused on distinctive architecture. It
hired Cain, Nelson, Wares & Cook, which designed a
poured-on-site concrete building, surrounded by native vegetation
that employed some of the earliest water-harvesting techniques in
Tucson, said architect Chris Evans, president of the Modern
Architecture Preservation Project.

Brutalism focused on the overall form of the buildings and not
adornment. Prominent examples here include the West Campus of Pima
Community College and Tucson police headquarters.

The VNB data center was never a public building and went largely
unnoticed behind the trees that surrounded it, although a round
concrete-and-glass building on the north is visible from East 22nd
Street. That is the part Pima County plans to tear down.

In a memo to the Board of Supervisors sent Friday, County
Administrator Chuck Huckelberry said he intends to proceed with
plans to tear down the 500-square-foot round building that once
served as the building's cafeteria. That is the only place on-site
where an emergency-management operations center can be located, the
memo says.

"Demolition of this structure is necessary to minimize risks
associated with maintaining public-safety communications during an
emergency," Huckelberry wrote. Legally, the county has no
requirement to preserve it.

Supervisors' Chairman Ramón Valadez said he'd like to save the
round building, but "we really need to have an emergency operations
center. It's vital we have it up and running."

Much of the eight-acre site is within the approach-departure
corridor for Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, said Reid Spaulding, the
county's director of facilities management. The county can't put
the emergency center on the south side of the property because it
intends to apply for federal grants, which it wouldn't qualify for
in an approach-take-off zone, he said.

Also, to be used for emergency operations, the building "needs
to withstand certain seismic and cataclysmic events," Spaulding
said. Modifications needed to do that are being done
internally.

The building is less than 50 years old, the usual cutoff for
application for historic status, but it is significant enough to
merit early designation, said Linda Mayro, the county's cultural
resources manager. Her office is documenting the site's history
before demolition.

The building is architecturally and historically significant,
she said, but as with many Modern buildings "there is no regulation
or ordinance that would prevent it from being destroyed or
altered."

Evans said his Modern Architecture Preservation Project has
asked the state historic preservation officer to review the plans
to ensure procedures were followed properly. The Tucson-Pima County
Historical Commission has also scheduled a review for
Wednesday.

Commissioner Demion Clinco, an architectural historian, said
Pima County has previously shown foresight in its treatment of
modern architecture. He cited the decision to renovate and expand
the Murphy-Wilmot Library, rather than demolish and replace it. He
said it's a shame that isn't the case on the bank building.